Icepacks and Midnight Chats are a Good Placebo
by Sunshine-hime
Summary: Rei's childhood trauma catches up with him again. Haru helps Rei through the aftermath just by being there for him.


**Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon Universe: Applimon and make no profit from this work.**

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Rei stops his work for the fifth time in an hour to press at his temples, hoping against any logic or reason that this would magically fix the issue. It doesn't and he groans at both the incessant throbbing and his stupid hope.

He still spends way too much online, he knows this. And with age Rei has gotten better at discerning awful content on the internet. However, things can slip through his custom filters and his own intuition and then it gets bad.

Only Hajime and Hackmon know about his triggers, the ones that stem from everything he saw in the deep web when he was younger and searching for his missing brother. There were awful, horrible things that haunt him, images burned into his brain that warp and twist his dreams.

Like earlier today, when he was doing a little research for work. He should have been more careful in hindsight, especially still crawling around in the deep web and all. But he was already exhausted from a previous all nighter and didn't pay close enough attention and suddenly something regrettable was on his screen, sending him right back in time to when he was first exposed to some of the worst of humanity as a pre-teen.

Luckily Hackmon had been Realized and nearby, working on one of his own digital world projects, and when he came back it's to Hackmon pulling him away, hacking wires out and force shutting down his laptop. He rubbed his back afterwards in small slow circles while Rei pretended that his eyes weren't burning, that he wasn't fighting to keep bile from rising in his throat, that his hands weren't violently shaking.

Hackmon thankfully doesn't tell his brother about this most recent episode, but his intense stare radiates disapproval and Rei can clearly see a near future in which he ends up telling Hajime about this too.

He especially doesn't want Hajime to know since he insists that Rei has been showing signs of PTSD from his experiences but that's honestly ridiculous. Only those who went through truly traumatic experiences get that, which fits with Hajime's trauma with the digital world far more. He's the one who deserves to seek treatment as he does now, not Rei. He doesn't need it. What he needs to be is a strong role model, his brother's anchor.

And he can't do that, can't even earn a proper living, if he doesn't pull himself together and finish this code. He looks outside, the inky sky and bright moon of midnight greeting him, and he sighs. It'll be another all nighter. Thankfully Hajime is sleeping or his brother would have chided him, worry in his eyes.

Rei rubs his eyes, trying to dispel the disturbing imagery from his mind. It's so stupid, why does this even bother him so much? His descending spiral of thoughts are interrupted by his phone buzzing on the table next to his laptop.

It's Haru. He feels a smile form on his lips and the tightness in his chest unfurl just a bit. It would be nice to talk to Haru, at least to get his mind off his other nonsense stressers. If it were Eri or Astra or Ai, he would question them on calling so late. But Haru is like him, he enjoys the peace that comes from night. So he picks up and waits for Haru to answer.

"Rei?"

"Yeah, who else would it be?" He almost surprises himself with how easy it is to make that remark and how soft and gentle his voice comes out. The throbbing in his head is there but it recedes a little.

A chuckle rings from his end, like bell chimes, and Rei smiles a bit more as he types out more lines of code. "Of course, just checking." A pause. "Is everything alright?"

Rei blinks, somehow not expecting that question even though Haru always asks. "I-I'm fine. Just tired is all. Trying to finish this assignment." And to punctuate that, he accidentally types a semicolon right in the middle of his line and hits enter, then stops the code from going haywire before erasing the offending punctuation with a mild curse.

Haru, who knows exactly what he did despite not seeing it, laughs too loud and in the background Rei can hear shushing noises from Gatchmon and an apology from Haru.

"Well, I hope I'm not distracting you," he says in a near whisper. "But I figured you could use a break." Rei freezes, not knowing how to respond and a long silence stretches between them. Haru continues. "You _sound_ tired. Something happened, didn't it?"

There it is. He isn't nearly as emotional perspective as Eri and not even half as blunt. But when it matters, he's able to read the signs. It always seems like Haru knows when something bothers him.

And honestly it's a relief sometimes, to have someone who gets him so well. Someone who isn't his brother, who he needs to protect. Someone who isn't his Buddy, who needs someone to stand by his side.

But Rei's heart is in his throat and he can barely breathe, let alone force out any words. Even if Haru isn't Hackmon or Hajime, it's still too hard to open up.

"Rei, I won't force you to talk about it. I know how it feels, to not want to think about something bad. But if you need to vent. I'm here. And, and it doesn't have to be speaking either, you know? You can text me or email me or something, whenever you feel up to it. Whatever works for you, okay?"

He exhales from his nose, fingers stilled since Haru spoke up, and he leans back in his chair. Writing it down? Why didn't he think of that? It takes a lot of the awkwardness out of having to voice those, those _things_. But he doesn't want to burden Haru either, with everything going on with Yuujin and all.

The migraine he nearly forgets about flares up again and he lets out a low grunt against his will. Haru hears it and asks if he's alright. A moment of thought and Rei figures it he might as well tell him about this at least.

"I, um. Have a headache. Nothing serious, just annoying."

"Go get an icepack. And a glass of water. Oh! And that, what was it?" He hears Haru snapping his fingers. "Some Choo Choo Jelly too."

Rei blinks. "Huh?"

"You heard me. When was the last time you drank or ate something?" Rei thinks back and realizes it was definitely before the, the _incident_. Which was in late morning. Dammit. Haru nailed it again. Is he really that easy to read?

"You'll feel a little better, I promise. Go ahead." Rei snorts but despite himself he does what Haru asks and gets the stuff, then comes back to his darkened room.

"Glad you're back. Since you need your hands free to work, rest the icepack on your neck. And make sure to drink the water and jelly slowly."

Rei does it and feels the relief almost immediately. The pain recedes to something barely there and he gasps at the lack of it. Holding the pack in place, he takes a small sip of water and it hits him how parched his throat was all this time. "It worked. _Really_ well. How did you know?"

Haru hums before answering. "Ai-chan sometimes gets really bad migraines so she knows all the remedies for them. The ones that work at least. And sometimes Yuujin would get a really bad headache so she shared all her tricks with him and I'd help out."

Rei takes another swig of water before drinking down some of the jelly. He feels even better now and mentally chides himself for forgetting to do such basic things. A long silence stretches between them again, but this one is cozy. Wrapped in a thick blanket of nighttime quiet.

"Hey. Haru?" Haru hums again. "Thank you."

"You're welcome Rei."

And Rei smiles to himself, letting Haru's voice wash over him.

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**I have in mind what happened to Rei when he was younger but I didn't delve into details because it wasn't necessary. That and because the subject matter is a bit too awful. On a lighter note, I love the friendship between Rei and Haru. It's so well developed and subtle and just really refreshing.**


End file.
